Hot Chocolate
by canarylongbottom
Summary: Oneshot. James drags Lily to a mysterious location. Christmas fluff. Massive cheese.


This is for Zay, girlwiththefeels. Have a very happy Christmas and I hope you don't die from the utter cheesiness that this fic is.

"Evans! Hey, EVANS!"

A tall, dark-haired boy, maybe seventeen years old, hurtled down the corridor, barreling into people and objects alike, but seemingly lacking the time to set everything upright again. The girl of his pursuit, a pretty red-head named Lily Evans, looked back at the boy's destructive aftermath in alarm. She dodged out of the way just in time to avoid being run into, and after the boy had skidded to a halt, Lily sent a death-glare his way.

"Merlin, Potter, look what you did!" She waved her arm in the general direction of the path he had trail-blazed. People were rubbing their shoulders and legs in pain, and one girl had fallen completely over and required assistance to get up again. Cabinets that had once wandered the hallways along with the students were knocked over, as well. Christmas decorations which had once decorated the corridor were everywhere.

Potter was panting heavily. "It—doesn't matter," he said in between breaths. "Come—with me."

He grabbed the hand of the confused girl and led her back the way he had come, stopping every so often to apologize profusely to some of his victims. Some of them laughed it off, saying, "We know you, James Potter. Don't fret." Others sent him dirty looks of which even Lily Evans would have been proud.

"So where are we going?" asked Lily.

"It's a secret. It's vastly important, though, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered running all this way."

Lily shrugged and let James guide her down the corridors. A day had existed, not too long ago, when she would have snubbed him and refused to listen, but the bully who had once targeted her best friend was a bully no more. Not only had he grown into his once scrawny frame, he had also grown up.

She was starting to understand that there were more important things than petty childish feuds. There was a war going on, a war that was waged because the opposing side believed that people like her shouldn't exist, shouldn't use magic. Her priorities were no longer holding grudges against the boys who had embarrassed her former best friend, Severus Snape. Now, based on what Snape was doing with his life, she secretly didn't blame them one bit.

Along the way they bumped into none other than Severus Snape himself.

"Ah, Snivelly," said James, "wish I had time to chat, but I have some important business to take care of."

He began guiding Lily away again, but as soon as their back was turned away from him, Snape attacked. Lily saw it out of the corner of her eye and quickly spun around, yelling, "_Protego_!"

The spell deflected off of her shield, missing James completely, and he looked at the girl in admiration. "Thanks, Evans," he grinned. He pulled out a suspicious-looking object from his bag—Lily couldn't quite see what it was—and muttered words into it. The next moment, James's best friends, known to all collectively as the Marauders, appeared. Dark-haired, dark-eyed Sirius black, mousy-haired, scrawny Remus Lupin, and straw-haired, plump Peter Pettigrew all ran towards James, who grinned at their arrival.

"Ah, perfect timing, Padfoot," said James to Sirius, who grinned back.

"What are you doing fighting Snivelly on Christmas?" asked Sirius, whose grin slid off his face at the sight of the greasy-haired boy.

James rolled his eyes. "He started it. I've got no time. Care to finish?"

Sirius looked as if he had suddenly understood what was going on, and gave James a significant look. "Don't worry, Prongs, we have it all under control."

James winked, grabbed Lily's hand once more, and they were off, running down the corridors. Lily's confusion was not abated by the whole scene. What in the name of Merlin was going on? Why on earth was James being so suspicious, and why did it seem as if the rest of his friends were in on this whole fiasco?

Finally, James seemed to slow down. Lily looked around and realized that they stood in front of the door leading to the top of the Astronomy tower. He opened the door and led her outside.

Lily let out an audible gasp. There was a small table with two chairs on either end. Above the table was a dome catching all of the snow so that anybody who sat at the table wouldn't be snowed on. From the dome was a small sprig of mistletoe.

"Would you care for some hot chocolate?" asked James, leading her to one of the chairs. He sat down at the other, and she felt her heart rate rising.

"Wh—what's going on?" she asked feebly.

"I figured I'd ask you out in a better way than back in fifth year in front of all your friends. And Snivelly."

Lily just gaped.

"So what do you say? Will you go out with me?"

She finally regained her control of her vocabulary. "I haven't run away yet, haven't I?" she said with a sudden smile.

James's eyes lit up and he jumped out of his chair. "Really?" he asked incredulously.

She smiled and gestured to the seat. "Let's drink some hot chocolate."

He grinned and pulled her out of her seat. "I've got other ideas," he said, and suddenly he was kissing her and she was kissing him back and the rest of the world didn't matter at all.

The hot chocolate lay forgotten for hours.


End file.
